Pre-National Invitational next challenge for Razorbacks
FAYETTEVILLE – Arkansas makes a second journey to Missouri’s Gans Creek course this season as they compete in the Pre-National Invitational, which has been moved to Friday due to expected inclement weather in the area on Saturday.
The Razorbacks will compete on a 6,000m course with the start time scheduled for 10 a.m. The meet will be streamed live on SEC Network+ and live results are available through PrimeTime Timing at this link – https://live.pttiming.com/xc-ptt.html?mid=8212.
“We’re excited to go back,” noted Arkansas women’s cross country coach Marc Burns. “Anytime you get a chance to get on a course like that it’s a really good opportunity, especially with the NCAA Championships being there in November.
“We feel ok about where we’re at, our front three are running great, Sydney, Josphine, and Olivia have look like a million dollars. So, we just need to keep them rolling. Any time you have some low sticks up front you have a shot to do something. Our problem is depth right now and we’re working on that.”
Eight nationally ranked top 30 teams are scheduled to compete in the Pre-National Invitational led by No. 1 BYU and No. 3 Florida along with No. 8 Oklahoma State, No. 19 Villanova, No. 21 Missouri, No. 23 Boston College, No. 27 Washington State, and No. 30 Tennessee.
Arkansas is among five programs receiving votes for the national poll who will be at Gans Creek. The other schools include Texas, Duke, Minnesota, and Clemson. Additional SEC teams among the field include Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and Vanderbilt.
“This will be our first 6k of the year,” said Burns. “I think it will really be good for them to feel that extra 1k as we go into the championship time of the year. Especially Sorcha, Sanu, and Madeleine, who are primarily 800m runners on the track. They’ve been building strength all year and I feel they’re turning the corner right now in their ability to handle a quality rhythm over an expanded period of time is growing week by week.
“We’ll find out where they’re at this weekend. I know we’ll be good up front and then it’s just a matter of where we end up with our 4-5-6. We’re certainly hoping to beat some good teams this weekend and that will start with our leadership up front and we’ll see where our 4-5-6 end up.”
Previously, Arkansas competed at the Mizzou Opener at the end of August over a 5k course. They placed second in team scoring to host Missouri with Josphine Mwaura leading the Razorbacks with a runner-up finish in 17:14.1.
At the recent Chile Pepper Festival, Sydney Vaught (née Thorvaldson) claimed the individual title with a time of 16:03.0 on the 5k Agri Park course as Arkansas placed second as a team behind Texas while finishing ahead of Stephen F. Austin, Rice and Missouri State among a field of 29 teams.
“Her training continues to rise to another level,” Burns said of Vaught. “She got married on September 6 so her life has changed quite a bit, but one thing that stayed very constant is her ability to train hard and take care of business from that standpoint.
“She’s run a couple of workouts that have been pretty head turning. Most recently she ran six times a 1k workout that is every bit as good as anybody I’ve ever coached. As long as that translates to racing, and in her case it typically does, I think she’ll be battling among the top five in this race and that’s going to be exciting.”
